Internet Book of Shadows, (Various Authors), [1999], at sacred-texts.com

Magick Vs. Prayer
One of the questions brought up on MagickNet was the difference between
Magick and prayer, and how this ties into the scheme of things in general.
Well, I feel that prayer and magick are only loosely connected. In prayer,
a person pleas with their deity for assistance. Energy wise, the person
praying is asking that something be changed, and believes that the request
will result in a change.
In magick, we use ourinner energy, combined with earthly andelemental
energy and Deity energy, and send this forth do accomplish the goal of our
spell. I think it's like "breaking" in the game of pool. We are
controlling stick (our spell), while we gather the energy to push the
stick/spell. Our Cone Of Power is like the cue ball, and the racked balls
are the target, which effects a change (breaks, or the goal of our spell)
from the force of our energy. There may be a point where prayer becomes a
type of magick (or, a psychic event) if the person knows of the personal
energies involved, and releases them with the prayer.
I feel that aprayer works the opposite way. The prayer is arequest to
effect a change in the ambient energy and invoke God (using the Christian
form). This change in energy is slower because it is "diluted" in the
surrounding energy and depends solely on faith ("I believe it will happen,
so it will").
Am I out in left field or just being redundant? I forgive if I'm
"running at the mouth". Now I'll try and tie in Parapsychology. Magic and
psi are very closely related in that (aside for leaving out the 'k' in
magicK) the same form of energy is used. It's just on a different
'frequency'. When I do an object reading or empathic reading on
someone/thing, I'm receiving a type of energy. When I send a Cone of
Power, I'm using the same type of energy, but on a (higher?) wavelength and
with greater force and higher power. Grounding negative feelings is an
example of converting one form to the other. Auric healing is the
opposite. So, I feel the energies are inter-changeable. I ask, as
Elsbeth has, "What do you think of THIS?" As someone stated before, the
definitions we are trying to define and clarify are our own, much like our
beliefs- our own. We are trying to find, I believe, common ground between
the nuances of our definitions and beliefs.
Blessed Be!
Salgamma
685